Appearances Quotes in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

I turned over in bed, with my back to the window, and caught sight of what appeared to be a shapeless black shadow sliding underneath my bedroom door. I lay motionless, trying sleepily to divine what was causing such a shadow in a room lit only by moonlight. Undoubtedly my stillness led the Lethifold to believe that its potential victim was sleeping.

To my horror, the shadow began to creep up the bed, and I felt its slight weight upon me. It resembled nothing so much as a rippling black cape, the edges fluttering slightly as it slithered up the bed towards me. Paralysed with fear, I felt its clammy touch upon my chin before I sat bolt upright. (20.3-4)

And now we're gonna have nightmares for the next week. Lethifolds are pretty sneaky because they take on the appearance of shadow or an ordinary everyday piece of fabric. Who'd expect their blanket of trying to kill them? You might want to sleep with the lights on the tonight… and bright-colored towels stuffed under all the doors.

Quote #8

The oldest recorded merpeople were known as sirens (Greece) and it is in warmer waters that we find the beautiful mermaids so frequently depicted in Muggle literature and painting. The selkies of Scotland and the Merrows of Ireland are less beautiful, but they share that love of music which is common to all merpeople. (21.5)

If you remember from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, this is the first thing that Harry notices about the merpeople when he dives into the Black Lake—they're really ugly. Appearances can be deceiving. But, as Mr. Scamander points out, there are some "traditionally beautiful" mermaids hanging around Greece, too. Hey, we think all merpeople are lovely. Don't let it get your self-esteem down under the sea, merfolks.

Quote #9

In retaliation, so the story has it, a gang of McCliverts surrounded the MacBoon dwellings one night and Transfigured each and every MacBoon into a monstrous five-legged creature. The McCliverts realised too late that the Transfigured MacBoons were infinitely more dangerous in this state (the MacBoons had the reputation for great ineptitude at magic). Moreover, the MacBoons resisted every attempt to turn them back into human form. The monsters killed every last one of the McCliverts until no human remained on the island. (25.2)

So, these monsters are actually human? Maybe. They look a little bit like angry Scotsmen and they are fighting mad, so we guess they've decided that it's better to look like beasts and be powerful than look like men and be kind of half-witted with a wand.